Fuels and other combustible materials frequently are stored in contact with air, though it is supportive of combustion, as in event of a spark, an extreme temperature rise, or similar hazardous event. As sustained combustion depends upon continued availability of air or other oxidant source, fire-extinguishing equipment may supply an oxygen-free gas blanketing the affected site to preclude continued combustion. Noble gases, such as argon and helium, are too costly, except for laboratory use. Available oxygen-free candidates include carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and various hydrocarbons, some halogen-containing, some storable in liquid form under pressure, also some rather toxic. Carbon tetrachloride is an old example of the latter.
Fire or explosion in a ground-level facility is bad enough, but may be substantially worse in transport craft, whether on land, or on or in the sea, or in the air, or even in outer space. Transport craft, wherever located, are at the mercy of the adverse effects of such hazards, as within cargo holds, and in communication or control compartments, as well as in fuel tanks, possibly extending also to the near vicinity of the craft, whether under way or even at rest.
Such hazards cannot be completely eliminated, but it is always desirable to have facilities for preventing them wherever possible, and for ameliorating their effect whenever prevention is incomplete.
Among contributions directed to one or more of such concerns, inventors who have received U.S. patents, include Brobeil, U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,640 (1982), Gas Generator-Actuated Fire Suppression Mechanism, wherein a vaporizable liquid such as Halon.RTM. [Allied Chemical brand name] is expelled by gas-generation; Enk, U.S. Pat. No. 4,351,394 (1982) Method and System for Aircraft Protection, in which distinct zones, each with its own sensor, are provided with extinguishing fluid via distribution branches as from a central manifold; Bruensicke, U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,848 (1984), Fire Suppression system for an Aircraft, both ducted and portable distribution of Halon.RTM. distributed by nitrogen under high pressure; Adams, Grenich, and Tolle, U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,731 (1988) Fire Suppression System for Aircraft, with small frangible spherical containers of pressurized extinguishing gas located throughout a given wing or other compartment; Miller, U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,426 (1988) Fire Extinguishment System for an Aircraft Passenger Cabin, a cargo compartment carries a container of bromotrifluoromethane connected to passenger cabin air-ducts, etc.; Galbraith, U.S. Pat. No. 5,449,041 (1995) Apparatus and Method for Suppressing a Fire, a multiple-gas arrangement, with a first application of a mix of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and water vapor, thus vaporizing a more conventional material, such as Halon.RTM.; and Hindrichs, Koch, and Trey, Fire Protection of Cargo Spaces, with a cargo compartment two-container constant-flow arrangement for a liquid extinguishant.
Notwithstanding the foregoing contributions, the present effort seems appropriate, to improve means and methods of hazard protection for storers of fuel and similarly combustible materials, especially for all users of transport craft, whether in air or on land or sea, to the benefit of their craft and their immediate surroundings also.